IN A quiet moment last September, when he could afford to joke about such things, Sir Alex Ferguson touched on his amusement at the way that every Manchester United draw is turned into a drama and every defeat into a crisis. “We lost something like four games out of five in the autumn of 1996,” he recalled, “and there was an hour-long programme on Radio 5: ‘The Demise of Manchester United’. We only won the league by seven points that year.”

Ferguson has grown accustomed to having the last laugh on his critics and, for as long as the Barclaycard Premiership trophy remains in the Old Trafford trophy cabinet and his team are still in the European Cup, he will continue to make light of suggestions of a crisis at the club. As damaging as Wednesday night’s 2-1 defeat away to FC Porto appeared, United should still be confident of overturning the first-leg deficit and progressing to the quarter-finals, even without the suspended Roy Keane.

It is not United’s ability to rise to the occasion, though, that is open to question. They could beat Porto on March 9 and could even, as unlikely as it seems, win the Premiership title or European Cup this season, but doing so would merely serve to paper over the numerous cracks that have appeared in Ferguson’s team since they won the Premiership last May. Of greater concern to the United board — and Ferguson’s enemies among the club’s shareholders — will be the bigger picture.

Unless they fall into the same complacent trap that cost them the Premiership title last season, Arsenal are close to becoming the dominant force in English football, having progressed while United have moved backwards over the past three years. That, to Ferguson, would represent the biggest insult of all, bigger than the prospect of another failure in Europe, where, having reached the semi-finals in 2002 and the quarter-finals last season, they could see this season’s ambitions ended even earlier by Porto.

In the past 2½ years, Ferguson has spent almost £130 million in a bid to reinforce what was already, by some distance, the strongest team in England. Some of those buys have been inspired (Ruud van Nistelrooy, even at £19 million), some have been excessive (Rio Ferdinand and Cristiano Ronaldo), but others (Diego Forlán, Kléberson, David Bellion) seemed as bizarre at the time as they do now.

As bemusing as some of the players Ferguson has bought are those he has not. In the summer of 2001, even after the controversial sale of Jaap Stam, he had seven international defenders and another two, David May and John O’Shea, who were capable of filling in when required. Even before the suspension of Ferdinand, he went into this season with only five, which, now that he regards Mikaël Silvestre as a central defender, did not include a recognised left back.

The lack of quality in defence has been exposed since Ferdinand began his ban, with only Gary Neville showing any degree of consistency, but even more glaring is the lack of depth. Neville, who filled in at centre half in Oporto, will be suspended for tomorrow’s Premiership match away to Fulham and, with Silvestre injured, the United defence is likely to see Wes Brown and O’Shea, neither of whom has inspired confidence of late, flanked by two midfield players in Phil Neville and Quinton Fortune.

To dwell too long on defensive shortcomings, though, would be to overlook other aspects of Wednesday night, when Ferguson admitted that United were lucky to escape with only a 2-1 defeat. Louis Saha endured a wretched European Cup debut, using the ball poorly on the rare occasions he got near it; Keane and Nicky Butt failed to get to grips with Deco, the Porto playmaker; and most alarming of all was the display of Paul Scholes, marginalised and ineffective on the right-hand side.

Talk of the right-hand side leads, inevitably, to David Beckham, whose sale to Real Madrid may have been perfectly well reasoned at the time, given that his long-term commitment to United was considerably less than he suggests in his autobiography, but whom Ferguson has neglected to replace. The sale of Juan Sebastián Verón to Chelsea was less controversial, but he often performed well in Europe and, with no Beckham either, the midfield has relied almost entirely on Scholes for invention.

Above all, Ferguson may be pining for the influence of Carlos Queiroz, who left his position as assistant manager to take charge of Real Madrid and whose sophisticated approach to coaching matters has been missed. As in 2002, when United were beaten to the title by Arsenal, Ferguson has seen fit to work without an assistant manager. And, while talk of United’s downfall may be premature or exaggerated, there are questions that Ferguson, on his own, is struggling to answer.

DEFENSIVE TRAVAILS

MANCHESTER UNITED

Premiership
Jan 11: drew 0-0 v Newcastle
Jan 31: won 3-2 v Southampton
Feb 11: lost 3-2 v Middlesbrough
Feb 21: drew 1-1 v Leeds

FA Cup
Feb 14: won 4-2 v Man City

FC PORTO

Champions League
Group F
Partizan 1 Porto 1
Marseilles 2 Porto 3
Real Madrid 1 Porto 1

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